Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.0

Circle of Friends Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Stephen Larson February 18, 2023

After traveling to the US from his native Ireland to direct such fare as Stars and Bars (1988) and The January Man (1989), Pat O'Connor returned to his homeland in 1990 to film Fools of Fortune. Five years later, he directed Circle of Friends, an adaptation of Maeve Binchy's best-selling 1991 novel. It was in the Irish motherland and the UK where O'Connor enjoyed early career success with the acclaimed Cal (1984) and A Month in the Country (1987). Circle of Friends wasn't distributed in America by one of the majors. (Indie firm Savoy Pictures handled its distribution.) The picture was Minnie Driver's feature film debut. The movie's only star was 24-year-old Chris O'Donnell, who by that time had co-starred in Scent of a Woman (1992) and The Three Musketeers (1993). Circle of Friends opened some months before O'Donnell transformed into Robin in Batman Forever.

In 1957, childhood friends Bernadette "Benny" Hogan (Minnie Driver), Eve Malone (Geraldine O'Rawe), and Nan Mahon (Saffron Burrows) are attending Trinity College at the University of Dublin. The three girls have known each other since grade school. Benny and Eve have always resided in the small town of Knockglen. During her adolescent years, Nan moved to Dublin along with her family. While college is a reunion of sorts, Benny's parents want their daughter to still live at home and take the bus back and forth from school. Benny would much rather live on campus with her friends. Nan introduces Benny to her friend Jack Foley (Chris O'Donnell), the dashing son of a doctor and rugby star at Trinity. Although Benny is probably the least beautiful of her friends, Jack is attracted to her more than he is to Nan and Eve. Benny feels an erotic charge when she gets close to Jack but her strict Catholic faith dictates she divulge her "impure thoughts" to a priest in a confessional booth. Benny's parents want her to hook up with Sean (Alan Cumming), a greasy clerk and possible heir to Benny's father at the family haberdashery. Benny tries to stay clear of Sean as much as she can but his cunning ways make that an impossibility. Jack would rather have an unconventional beauty like Benny rather than flaunt his golden-boy looks and woo the most gorgeous girl at the school. While he's a pre-med student like his father was, he wants to divert from a preordained path and pursue his own career interests, which are still budding. The glamorous Nan is more of a free spirit than Benny. She's also a social climber wanting to branch out from her lower middle-class roots so she unwittingly attempts to seduce the cad Simon Westward (Colin Firth) from a well-off Protestant family and local gentry. Eve has been raised by nuns since she was a young orphan and tries to have a romantic tryst with Aidan (Aidan Gillen) at the college. (This is the least developed relationship in the film.)

Circle of Friends was a sprawling 565-page novel inspired by Binchy's college experiences in Dublin. It's been truncated and compressed by scenarist Andrew Davies to a roughly one-hour and forty-minute film. There are some character motivations and story events that could have been better explained and elaborated on in this adaptation. O'Connor and Davies assume the audience will have implied that Benny and Jack have discussed a pivotal conflict, for example, rather than show them talking about it. Binchy viewed a sneak preview of the version of her book in New York before the film premiered in March 1995. She told the Lincoln (NE) Journal Star's Maureen Bogues that when she read the script, she didn't particularly like it because much was left out from her novel. Additionally, a lot of her original characters were eliminated. She also thought that each speaker's sentences sounded too short. Binchy was pleasantly surprised when she saw O'Connor's realization of her book, which she called "lovely."

Circle of Friends received very good reviews from American critics. Gary Thompson of the Philadelphia Daily News practically singled it out: "This is the rare film that slow­ly, confidently, allows its charac­ters to develop and to connect with the audience. It’s quite a relief from pushy commercial movies, which staple their photo­copied characters to your fore­head in the opening two minutes." Joan Bunke of The Des Moines Register admired how it was directed: "O’Connor handles these familiar lit­tle dramas with honesty and freshness: It's as if love, lust, pain, anguish betrayal and passion were newly invented instead of age-old human conditions." Most reviewers thought that the Chicago-born O'Donnell mastered an Irish accent well. However, it took me at least a couple of scenes to warm up to to it and deem it adequate for the part.

Circle of Friends Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Universal has given Circle of Friends its global debut on Blu-ray on this MPEG-4 AVC-encoded BD-25. O'Connor's seventh big-screen movie appears in its original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1. Although the picture has been restored, noise-reduction techniques have been applied. I created a graphical comparison between a handful of screen captures on the Universal with the letterboxed HBO DVD. (The non-anamorphic caps may initially look horizontally stretched so please click on them to view the full width.) This is an inconsistent transfer. On the one hand, one can pick out some grain in landscape and cityscape shots (see Screenshot #s 14 and 15). However, in the film's opening shots of nature, the image has been sharpened. The color timing has also been tweaked compared to the SD transfer. The land appears darker (browner?) in frame grab 19 compared to the verdant shade it's given on the DVD. The latter seems more in line than what appeared on the theatrical prints. For instance, The Santa Fe New Mexican Emiliana Sandoval described Ireland in this movie as "so green and lush and old-looking...[Dublin is] all Gothic-looking, drafty stone buildings, big trees and green lawns." Soren Andersen of The News Tribune (Tacoma, WA) also observed: "It's a lush-looking film, with its share of shots of emerald Irish fields." In a similar vein, the Springfield (MO) News-Leader's David Daly pointed out the "green and lush landscapes." The greenery is definitely apparent in other landscape shots on the BD but not in the scene where the bus is traveling along the country road. Furthermore, O'Donnell's face appears waxed and pasty in #17. It has a warmer tone on the HBO. Still, this is the best Circle of Friends has ever looked. It's just doesn't retain a natural, organic appearance. Universal has encoded the feature at an average video bitrate of 24706 kbps.

Screenshot #s 1-15, 17, 19, 21, 23 & 25 = Universal Studios 2021 BD-25
Screenshot #s 16, 18, 20, 22 & 24 = HBO Home Video 1998 DVD-5

Universal has divided the film into eleven chapters.

Circle of Friends Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Universal has supplied a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Stereo mix (2131 kbps, 24-bit). The HBO disc has a Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround track, which hasn't been brought over to the Blu-ray. Nonetheless, this is a clear and pleasant-sounding mix. Spoken words are intelligible and easy enough to discern. The Long John Jump Band performs "Love Is a Many Splendored Thing" in the film with some really good bass. Composer Michael Kamen's original music effectively underscores the drama. The Chieftains give the setting an air of authenticity in their performances of "You're the One" and "Dublin (Jig)."

Optional English SDH accompany the feature.

Circle of Friends Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Extras are nil on the Universal disc. The HBO disc contains the original theatrical trailer and some TV spots.

Circle of Friends Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Circle of Friends is a beautifully filmed Irish period drama. Full credit to cinematographer Kenneth MacMillan for the sumptuous lensing. The picture is a charming experience and a delight to see several stars early in their careers. The second half trudges more into soap opera territory, though. While this Universal Blu-ray is an improvement over prior video transfers, beware that it has DNR applied. A MILD RECOMMENDATION for this budget release.